Stefano Domenicali believes qualifying is still Ferrari's biggest weakness this season and that Fernando Alonso would have had the race pace to challenge Sebastian Vettel had he started further up the grid in Canada.

Alonso finished second after starting sixth but was 14 seconds shy of Vettel at the end of the race after the Red Bull driver dominated from pole position. But Domenicali is confident Ferrari would have challenged for the win if Alonso had managed to qualify higher on the grid in Saturday's damp qualifying session.

"It would have been a totally different picture," he said. "I believe that if Fernando would have been on the front row it would have been a different story for Sebastian.

"We've seen that their performance in the race is very good and today we saw that from first position Sebastian could dictate the pace of the race with no problem, but when you have such a strong qualifying you can also have this kind of situation. Of course, this is a need for us because if you are stuck behind you are not able to attack. To be second today was the maximum we could have done."

Asked if Ferrari now needs Vettel to make mistakes or have reliability woes to have a crack at the title, Domenicali said: "For sure if it happens I will not be crying, but because I am a sporting man I do not wish for him to have problems. I believe that he was very consistent up until now, but this year things can change very quickly and if you have a difficult race then things can change again.

"For sure he is very strong, but last year we had a 50 point lead at the summer break and lost the title because of things that were not in our hands. We need to make sure the car improves, mainly on Saturdays I would say."